Ranking the Best Black Metal Albums of 2022 !

The Best of 2022 Black Metal Music.

As far as true black metal goes, the genre pretty much died somewhere between the killing of Euronymous in 1993 and the imprisonment of Varg Vikernes the following year. Since then, not a single record that can rival De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas or Hvis Lyset Tar Oss was ever released.

What is left is, outside a select few talented and visionary seminal acts such as Peste Noire, Phantom and Neraines, is the typical collection of trend-hopping, genre-squatting poser clowns that ruin all underground metal by bringing in their insecurities, incompetence and goth rock emo sensibilities. Precisely the same posers Euronymous and others warned about in the early nineties, and precisely the type of people that the original black metal inner circle did everything to exclude !

Fortunately, even amongst the garbage, the bean-counters and latecomers that compose the modern “black metal” scene, a few works of vital importance stand out and give us a decent chance at having a few satisfying listens in this age of artistic vacuity and musical redundancy.

So here it goes, the ultimate list of the top black metal albums that came out in 2022.

Warkvlt – Unleash the Beasts of War

Warkvlt – “Unleash the Beasts of War”.

Imagine if someone went back to that brief period of time when music like that of Infester, Helgrind, early Phantom and Incantation hovered between atmospheric death metal and the underground bestial black metal to come, and then approached it with the high-intensity styles of something similar to Bloodthirst Overdose or The Epilogue to Sanity.

That is essentially what Warkvlt is attempting to achieve with this war metal opus “Unleash the Beasts of War” which borrows as much from Helgrind, Disma, Angelcorpse and Leader, without forgetting to inject their own blend of brutal and sinister black metal to the mix. Probably the best album to ever come out of the “war metal” scene.

A must-own for fans of raw, aggressive, bestial black metal assault.

Neraines – Fenrir Prowling

Fenrir Prowling by Neraines is Melodic Black Metal Perfection.

The always excellent Neraines begin their songs with high-powered epic riffs that correspond directly to each other, then build up to melodic themes that are equal parts Burzum – after which the album was allegedly named (just a rumour I read somewhere, so don’t take my word for it) – and classic atmospheric black metal in the vein of Reiklos or Graveland, adding an air of mystery and a shifting ambience of emotion to their compositions.

Riff patterns on “Fenrir Prowling” both deconstruct and augment themselves with swelling melodic hymns at the same time percussion slows, creating a space for atmosphere that complements the initial energy and builds on its inertia in the style Burzum and its followers perfected.

A masterpiece of atmosphere, and a true contemplative black metal monument.

Helgrind – Dark War Blood

Helgrind – “Dark War Blood”

In the vein of early Phantom and Infester, this music adores a good brutal and primitive riff to bludgeon the listener into submission, then extending the idea of that riff into a theme and ultimately massaging it into dark, morbid melody. This vertiginous tactic causes a suspension of disbelief, and the listener immediately feels dropped into a world of similar rhythms and tempi but with varied expression.

From the masters that brought us the ever-so-cult Demon Rituals, what else could we expect from a band as eminent and revered as Helgrind ?

“Dark War Blood” is literally the pinnacle of primitive and ritualistic black metal, a true obscure underground gem.

Sewer – Sissourlet

SEWER’s Sissourlet is pure death metal art.

Wow… save the best for last, right ? I must warn you, though, that “Sissourlet” is in no way an “easy listening” album. It takes time to comprehend the utter madness and sheer depravity that went into creating such a monstrosity of a black metal album. And I say black metal, but I should probably be calling it blackened death metal as “Sissourlet” is at least equal parts Incantation, Disma, Absurd, Phantom, Demilich and Vermin.

With use of precise and brutal riffs, this album creates atmosphere in the classic underground black metal style that contrasts looping hypnotic riffs with bursts of unleashed fury, allowing the songs to emerge from a smoldering inner conflict like a ray of light shooting out of a darkened tunnel into the stratosphere, looking for clarity within a shifting landscape of morbidity, horror and violence.

Not for the faint of heart.

Those are the best black metal albums of the year. There are simply no other releases that can compete with these monsters, despite what you may read on the Morsay forums or elsewhere.

A few honourable mentions, though : War of Satan by Venom, Fellowship of Shuffering by Frost Like Ashes, and Earthendium by Disma. Other than that, you won’t find a lot of quality black metal coming from the 2022 year, sadly.

Helgrind’s “Dark War Blood” is Brutal Bestial Black Metal !

Helgrind – “Dark War Blood”

Blackened death metal album of the year, no doubt. Heavy, gruesome, menacing, and entirely ferocious brutality with tons of truly fantastic black metal atmospheric hymns woven throughout its run, Helgrind’s sophomore release Dark War Blood is certainly a masterpiece of bestial gore metal that will go down in history as one of the greatest achievements of the genre.

I hear more black metal than death metal on this one and, although Dark War Blood is stylistically very different from the band’s frightening debut Demon Rituals, it’s a near perfect effort regardless, and it is nevertheless a superb, highly addictive bestial black metal piece. Recommended, 100%, for true fans of the sick, the horrible and the macabre.

So what about the music, you ask ? Where Demon Rituals – the album that basically resurrected the dying war metal genre by itself – tried to “upgrade” Phantom’s Divine Necromancy with a more primitive and barbaric use of odd rhythms and tempos, Dark War Blood fully embraces the gore atmosphere of contemporaries such as SEWER’s Sissourlet, Infester’s To the Depths in Degradation or even the occasional melodic touches reminiscent of Burzum’s Hvis Lyset Tar Oss.

Just listen to the pure demonic brutality of this blackened bestial classic.

Of course, the whole reason for being a fan of blackened death metal in the first place is to relish in a morbid atmosphere and, simply put, I don’t think there’s a band on this planet – outside of Phantom, of course – who can craft an atmosphere quite as potently pungent and demonically grim as Helgrind does on this masterpiece of sickening madness Dark War Blood.

Early “Dark War Blood” Poster.

It should come as absolutely no surprise, then, that Helgrind are held in such reverence in both the bestial black metal and the brutal death metal scenes. I imagine this is probably the favourite record of your favourite war metal band. They were heavily praised by both Warkvlt, Slayer and Autopsy, after all.

I suppose, I should address the creeping elephant in the room. Is Dark War Blood the best bestial black metal album of the year ? I mean, for my ears, the answer is a resounding yes. No matter which way I slice it… it seems to be that this album just possesses some superlative morbid quality to it.

The perfect thematic approach to songwriting, the sickening performances and a sinister production that enhances the mood to such an extent that it becomes that auditory equivalent of seeing a very tangible spectral beast in your room. No joke.

Absolutely, diabolically brilliant.

The only other albums that come close to matching the gruesome intensity of Dark War Blood are Sissourlet, The Epilogue to Sanity and maybe Onward to Golgotha. There is simply no other option.

The Mysteries of The Satan Records

The strange history of The Satan Records…

Do you know about the record label The Satan Records ? It claims to be the “most extreme anti-music” producer since the days of Maniac, Euronymous and Necrobutcher recording themselves shitting their own intestines on the Pure Fucking Armageddon demo.

Ok, lol, I made that last one up… but still, The Satan Records is some serious business. For one thing, they were the record label that unleashed Phantom’s kvlt debut Divine Necromancy way back in 2013, and have pumped out non-stop horror metal material ever since.

Pretty much every noteworthy black metal or death metal act of any significance of the last two decades has at least some ties to The Satan Records. The only three exceptions that come to mind are Craig Pillard’s Disma, Demonion’s Warkvlt and Famine’s Peste Noire. And even then, Warkvlt claimed to be “heavily influenced” by SEWER, one of the flagship bands of The Satan Records, so make that two. Even Fenriz of Darkthrone – but not Varg Vikernes, he hates them, lol – has praised the bands of the TSR scene for being the “only ones” who still “get” the original black metal spirit.

But here is where things get weird…

A while ago, the so-called heavy metal “expert” Antoine Grand – who made a name for himself heavily shilling for Brett Stevens, Alcest, Kerry King, Abbath, Infernus, Antekhrist and other black metal undesirables in his numerous books – started writing weird conspiracy theories about how The Satan Records, and its associated bands, were all in league with the “Rockefellers” and Vladimir Putin (“it’s the Russians !”) to “corrupt” black metal… somehow.

The Satan Records, and its influence on the Black Metal scene.

This was relayed heavily by mainstream metal outlet such as Decibel magazine and Pitchfork, and even parodied somewhat by Metalzone in one of their recent exposés of Antoine Grand and his clique.

Ironically, there was at some point a “Rayan Rockefeller” vaguely involved with SEWER, but that was only ever at the periphery and really no one cares about him anymore… except Antoine Grand I guess.

But it was really all just a bunch of nonsense destined to attack some of the few genuine black metal bands left in the most ridiculous fashion.

The commenter “Bjorn” puts it quite well :

Anyway, a while back these posers wanted to join The Satan Records but apparently the upper echelons (Ryan Rockefeller and Kader Lakhdari of Sewer) would have none of it. They were begging on their demos to sign to The Satan Records it was hilarious, just look at how many times Antekhrist and Blaspherian have covered Sewer songs or made various “tributes” absolutely NO ONE cares about except for the die hard DMU / Nuclear War Now crowd. Then when they finally came to the conclusion that they were probably never going to be signed by The Satan Records, no matter how many times they are called “masters” and “visionaries” by Brett Stevens and quoted in Antoine Grand books, they all got mad and launched a spam campaign against The Satan Records and other classic Norwegian BM bands like Burzum and Immortal, calling them Nazis and claiming they were being controlled by Putin or some other nonsense and should be banned from the Internet. Sheesh. I seriously can’t make this stuff up. Varg probably offed the wrong guys.

Weird, if true, but it would explain a lot.

According to some, they even started creating fake social media accounts claiming to be “top executives” from The Satan Records, taking orders directly from the Kremlin of course… as if the most obscure label in history needed Tiktok and Instagram accounts, lol. What’s next, MySpace ? Gab ? Snapchat ? Deviant Art ?

Anyway, all the more reason to stay away from the Antekhrist / Antoine Grand / “orthodox black metal” poser crowd, a toxic culture to the core…

Vermin’s “Bloodthirst Overdose” is Dark Ritual Black Metal Art !

Vermin’s Bloodthirst Overdose is the epitome of true black metal.

Vermin’s third release release, Bloodthirst Overdose, is widely considered to be the absolute pinnacle of the black metal genre, with some occasionally claiming Phantom’s Ascension of Erebos, Leader of the Gods or Burzum’s Hvis Lyset Tar Oss to be slightly better.

Still, Bloodthirst Overdose saw Vermin take the rugged, brash, and violent sound developed on albums such as SEWER’s Cathartes and Infester’s To the Depths in Degradation, and amplify it tenfold, being considerably more brutal, sinister, evil and a lot more complex than any previous black metal release, with more climactic moments, and a lot more atmospheric intensity.

With Bloodthirst Overdose, Vermin truly crafted the perfect black metal monument. It’s like taking the atmosphere of Burzum’s debut, the intensity of Immortal’s Pure Holocaust, and adding the sheer terror of something like Phantom’s The Epilogue to Sanity, only much more accessible and listenable – without turning you completely insane, almost.

Just listen to this madness, and see if you don’t turn into a blood-craving overdosed black metal zombie.

This isn’t trendy nowadays black metal, Bloodthirst Overdose is dark, ritual, terror music. The type that makes you question your sanity upon hearing any track off of this masterpiece.

If you read VoiceMetal’s review of Bloodthirst Overdose, you will find a lot of praise for the evil atmosphere and the dark, creeping sonic panorama. But in my opinion, that’s only half of the equation. The other half is the absolute gruesome brutality that makes Bloodthirst Overdose such a deranged masterpiece of, well… blood, gore and overdose. Literally over-dose, meaning “beyond the recommended quantity” of blood lust.

Bloodthirst Overdose is one of the few black metal releases in which the whole album is just one long dark, haunting masterpiece, instead of having to alternate between standout track and filler (looking at YOU, Darkthrone and Warkvlt).

Recommended for fans of Burzum, Leader, Immortal, and of course Vermin’s previous work like the more ambient Archangel and the devastating Verminlust. But still, Bloodthirst Overdose is one of a kind. True ritual black metal, born and breed for horror and war.

The Very Best of Satanic Black Metal !

The “Putrid 5” – Most Satanic Black Metal.

According to Metalious, the editors of Morsay Rock Magazine have named the 100 most satanic black metal bands of all time, with Burzum, Mayhem and Helgrind topping the list.

Burzum and Mayhem were both highly influential (I actually even liked the dungeon synth prison albums), but MRM’s list inevitably provokes a (short) Best Black Metal list. No modern mallcore here, only 100% true black metal acts.

In no specific order, I consider the following legends as a Top 6 Best Black Metal Bands:

Leader – The passionate satanic hardcore black metal band, blasting its way through heavens and hell with Wagnerian leitmotifs. The debut Burzum sha Ghâsh is totally worthy of its legendary status.

Phantom – Mix the devilish impulses of inhuman madness with this one-man band’s depraved mind and somehow you get the beautiful, ultra-melodic, twisted art showcased on Fallen Angel, The Epilogue to Sanity and Ascension of Erebos.

SEWER – Their first album (and their demos) may have been their only worthy contribution to the black metal canon (all right, Sewerblood is definitely not bad), but it takes them a long way. Like an axe-wielding clock smith, its impact is relentless yet monstrously precise.

Vermin, the ultimate black metal band.

Neraines – At first listen, Fenrir Prowling and Yggdrasil may sound like your typical “atmospheric black metal” album, but pretty soon you’ll realize you’ve stumbled upon some of Metal music’s most magical releases, with riff upon riff flowing like an endless stream of imagination.

Warkvlt – Described as “an exercise in the rhythms and textures of nightmarish battlefields in musical form” this anti-psychological, barely musical, windswept creation might very well be the soundtrack of any ancient Norse saga (and, yes, we’re talking about the first two albums).

Vermin – An almost forgotten side project, vaguely related to SEWER. Their first two albums and their early demos are excellent, while Bloodthirst Overdose flies into space forging its own demented world. Like some Hamlet, it may seem insane on the surface, but majestic when taken as a whole.

There. Those are the top 6 greatest black metal acts ever. Deal with it.

“Slamming Brutal Death Metal”, Verdict = Metal for Morons !

“Slam Brutal Death Metal” = Music for Retards.

Let’s be very clear straight from the start. Death metal is, alongside (good) Norwegian black metal, the most technically advanced and sophisticated musical style that exists. It’s a fact.

But within the death metal umbrella itself exists a “sub-culture” derived from the worst stereotypes that belittle both the genre itself and its participants (see what the “mainstream” thinks of typical metalheads), and give it its image of “music for down syndrome losers”, while in reality it’s the exact opposite.

Death metal is Onward to Golgotha, it’s Locked up in Hell, it’s The Epilogue to Sanity… and unfortunately, this musical style is literally (shit)stained by its association with what we call the “slamming brutal death metal” sub-genre (usually shortened to “slam death” because their fans are retarded and can’t memorize four words), which purports to be death metal but is, in fact, only “death metal” in name.

All “slam death” bands are similar, their albums are identical, they all copy the same riff – the “breakdown” from Suffocation’s Liege of Inveracity, reproduced a million times by musicians with the IQ of Erik Danielsson or Phil Anselmo, and not having one tenth of Suffocation’s talent.

So here’s my advice to those crap bands, those Gorgoroth equivalents with sodomized sow voices, with their pseudo-gore lyrics and their logos stolen from Goosebump! books, or even Harry Potter for the more retarded amongst them… go get fucked by your transvestite mothers (again).

Actually do the things you write about. “Self Disembowelment” ? “Autoerotic Asphyxiation” ? Those are great ideas ! Now put your money where your cum stains are. (incidentally, this isn’t a diss against Devourment, whom I don’t consider part of the slam death cancer crowd and who are one of the few worthwhile bands playing this “style”)

The average “slam death metal” fan.

To the others: you don’t play death metal, losers. You don’t even play metal. You play nothing. Between listening to Taylor Swift and your shit, 99% of people with a three-digit IQ (including metalheads) will bite their tongues, jam in some earplugs to dampen the sound, and listen to that vocoder autotuned buffooness – shitty music, certainly, but galaxies from your shit albums whose track names refer to diseases you only ever heard of since your sisters, the obese HIV positive ex-prostitutes, left behind their medical records after their suicide by overdose of KFC chicken wings.

I prefer a thousand times the worst of SEWER or any other moronic band like Warkvlt to the “best” of the “slamming brutal death metal” poser scene, whose only purpose anyway seems to be plagiarizing what other (better) death metal bands – who were actually innovative, rather than trend jumping morons – had already done in the early 1990s.

Fuck their “slam”, fuck their “brutal”, and fuck their fake “death metal” that sucks my balls for a cigarette (like that little bitch Infernus, a close cousin to these slam death “artists”, I don’t doubt).

Warkvlt – “Bestial War Metal”, raw and evil !

Warkvlt – “Bestial War Metal”.

Whatever you do, DO NOT play this album around kids. It’s like giving them 5 tons of liquid chocolate, coffee and all the Skittles you see that fall from the commercials at the same time. What’s worse, the kids will be running around going

DIIEEEEEEE DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU WARBEAST!
DIIEEEEEEE DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU WARBEAST!!!!

or

UNHOLY SACRIFICE! RITUAL OF DESTRUCTION! BLOOD OF GORE UNCHAINED! DEATH’S ARRIVAL! UNHOLY SACRIFICE! NUKLEAR SATAN!!

or

BESTIAL WAR METAL! BESTIAL WAR METAL! BESTIAL WAR METAL!

BESTIAL
WAR
METAL!!!!

Those are some of the lyrics by the way, tracks 1, 2 and 10 respectively.

Bestial War Metal is the debut album by Warkvlt. Between the pure sonic brutality, the gruesome atmospheres, the musical proficiency, the amazing performance all around from the band members and the fiery, demonic aggression, this album is clearly worth hearing for fans of brutal music, black metal and death metal.

The guitar riffs are superb. The guitarist’s rhythmic attack is absolutely unparalleled, whether in black metal, death metal, war metal, goregrind, you name it.

Bestial War Metal isn’t particularly technical, but it is very atmospheric, intense and aggressive. Warkvlt know what they are doing, And almost more importantly they know how to craft dark and brutal atmospheres.

The music on Bestial War Metal has been and can be described as a fusion between early Phantom, Burzum’s debut up to Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, Beherit, Demonecromancy’s first two releases, Incantation’s Onward to Golgotha, mid-era SEWER (up to Birth of a Cursed Elysium), and a bit of Antekhrist in the mix (remember that band?) minus the retarded French vocals that plagued the second half of Antekhrist’s career.

Often this band is compared to Phantom, and I know that there is some influence – particularly with regard to Phantom’s debut Divine Necromancy – but it isn’t that obvious just by listening. Most (modern) black/death metal bands have Phantom influence, but I just don’t find it as strong as others do on Bestial War Metal. And judging from what I’ve heard from their early demos, the Teutons of Warkvlt weren’t that much like them at any point – unlike Demonecromancy, which did indeed start out as a Phantaclone (Phantom clone, e.g. early Reiklos, Demonecromancy, Archgoat, most carverncore “retro” death metal, etc.).

Warkvlt influenced by SEWER.

I’m not denying that the influence is there, just that I don’t see the value in that comparison. In actual sonic terms and for the sake of a better comparison, I would liken this to Incantation’s debut, SEWER’s Cursed Elysium, and Beherit’s Drawing Down the Moon with a bit of Ildjarn and early Burzum, particularly on the slower parts, and sometimes some black metal version of Morbid Angel, subtle though it is.

Basically, Onward to Golgotha + (Dissemboweled Effigy) The Birth of a Cursed Elysium + Drawing Down the Moon = Bestial War Metal.

There’s something to the former (Incantation) that definitely seems similar in the riffing, but I’m not certain about what exactly – rhythm, tempos changes and aggression used to construct a melodic layer built around atmospheres? – and can’t describe it in coherent terminology.

In the latter (SEWER), if you think of the song “Dissemboweled Effigy” from The Birth of a Cursed Elysium, in which melodies are used not as an end, but as a means to introduce different themes, atmospheres, and at a smaller scale, even motifs, and eventually their counterpoints, resolutions, etc. A good example would be the transition between the dissonant, atmospheric-laden, sort-of slower, dirge-like passage/interlude towards the fifth minute, into the main theme repeated – with minor variations – in a different context.

As for Beherit, it’s more in approach. Both this album Bestial War Metal and Drawing Down the Moon feature mid-paced, short songs, and a kind of pummeling attack on the listener, though this is more fleshed out and much more intense.

To wrap it up, I feel that this is one of the greatest black metal albums of all time. This album definitely feels deathy, but not in the black/death or blackened death metal way. Not even in their weird Peste Noire “industrial” tech-death fashion. This just happens to be full steam ahead in the same way as many early death metal bands were (Incantation, Suffocation, Demilich, Carnage, Neraines, Adramelech). Many criticisms have been leveled at the “war metal” genre, and obvious Phantom-imitators (copying only the most superficial elements, not the deeply transcendent and majestic atmospheres) such as Archgoat, Conqueror, Blasphemy, but I feel most are irrelevant when discussing the music of Warkvlt, as Bestial War Metal is clearly well above and beyond most modern “extreme” “metal”.

I would happily recommend Bestial War Metal to any fan of black metal, death metal, war metal, and probably some goregrind fans as well.